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Travis Wood pitched well enough to win, as he does, and the bullpen pitched fairly well from there. The problem was the bats, which didn’t do whoop-boo-diddly-doo, save for the obligatory teaser rally in the 9th. Yes, it was a generous strike zone today, but it was generous for both sides.

23 hits in his last 86 ABs = .267 Not great, but not close to career-ending

Spencer

A guy batting .213 with an OPS+ around 75 probably shouldn’t be batting lead off.

Zogie

The Cubs are now 2-5 against the Bucs this season. The pitching limited the Bucs to 2 runs, but the cubs offense continues to be inconsistent. 0-5 RISP and it seems a lot worse than that. The positive would be the 5 BB but the negative would be the 13 Ks. Barney should not bat lead-off. I would rather see a high average or OBP guy in the 1 spot. Barney is an 8 hitter only. 0-5 today with 3 ks and most of the time he has been expanding his zone, but again this brings up a difficult question. Who should be lead-off against lefties? The truth is we don’t have one. My choice would be Castro, but his inconsistencies have placed him in the 7 spot. It was another tough game today to watch and if anyone has any questions I have all the ABs evaluated. Hang with ‘em Travis Wood. Lastly, I hope to see Navarro in the lineup soon. His bat has been hot lately and the cubs have let him ride the pine.

Voice of Reason

You basically just summarized the season.

Solid pitching…. no offense

1060Ivy

Similar to start of last season – then the trading deadline and pitching went to crap after trades. Expect similar for this season

YourResidentJag

There could be more offense, The Cubs didn’t feel like gambling too much money on Cespedes.

BT

Actually, the Cubs didn’t feel like making Cespedes a free agent after 4 years, the bulk of which they would not have been contending. Cespedes wanted either a 4 (with a guarantee of no arbitration being offered) or 8 year deal, and the A’s were the only team willing to comply.

YourResidentJag

Problem is the Cubs run differential this year needed Cespedes in its offense. This year they could have been contending if only they had one more run producer in their lineup. So….that 4 yr deal could have had two years of contending at least. And the deal could have been 5 years because Cespedes and his agent wouldn’t have turned it down.

Hansman1982

You realize that Cespedes has provided the same amount of offense as Schierholtz

cjdubbya

But hey, someone has to be the contrarian voice around here.

YourResidentJag

So, Schierholtz will be here in 3-4 years. Glad to know If we could have somehow traded Soriano last year, we could have had both. Like Kyle says, you can never stockpile too much LH Ofs. And my personal favorite–so if we signed DeJesus (which we did) and then signed Cespedes, we would still have two players worth 1 WAR, except until Schierholtz, one can lead off for us 😉

Feel bad for Theo too as he’s got all this talent in the minors but wise not to rush them… As a result must suffer

nkniacc13

next year will be interesting to see if the will rush. Most of the top talent isn’t even in AA yet so a jump to the Cubs isn’t reasonable

Ben

Any time Rizzo and Castro want to start earning those salaries it will be fine. Ugh.

mudge

Why not bat Barney 8th and move up the rest of the line-up? Good to see Sveum go two with CV even if gave up the run.

melrosepad

Any reason we went with Villanueva for two innings instead of Parker? I’d like to see him and Putnam more.

mudge

You’ll see plenty of ’em.

JBlades

I wish they would trade Barney and bring up Watkins. At least he can get on base. We need more high OBP guys in this lineup. It also makes the starting pitchers throw more pitches and gets us to the bullpen quicker, which makes the opposing manager have less choices deeper into the series to bring in his best relievers.

http://Bleachernation Lou Brock

Sveum fell asleep in the ninth when Sweeney & Navarro both on base and no pinch runner for Navarro. If Barney doubles into the gap or LF corner why not run Samardzija out there ?
That was the tying run standing on first and our slowest runner.

TWC

So let’s say that the Cubs put a pinch runner in and only ended up tying it up. Who would catch in the top of the 10th?

In your haste to shit on Sveum’s decision making aren’t you overlooking that?

Ben

Lou, there was no other catcher available since Castillo out of the game. Couldn’t remove Navarro.

http://Bleachernation Lou Brock

My bad, watching draft when Castillo removed, sorry Dale.

Kyle

It’s games like this where I get really irked that we’re carrying too many left-handed reserve outfielders. Platoons are magic, use them correctly.

YourResidentJag

We gotta a lot of em.

willis

Liriano dominates them again. Same damn thing as last time. This lineup against his stuff is going to yield the same results each time. He’s been very good this year. He’s always had the stuff, just lost himself for a minute. But damn he’s lights out at this point.

Encouraging start again for Wood. Hopefully Shark kicks some ass tomorrow and they can get a W.

Kyle

Fortunately, his arm is due to fall off any day now.

http://deleted Mr. Gonzo

What are some hopeful ETAs for our more highly-regarded prospects? Lake & Vizcaino for some coffee in September? Bryant in June/July 2014? Soler for coffee in September 2014?

http://deleted Mr. Gonzo

(clarification: closest to the show who may have an impact. Obviously, Baez/Almora/Johnson need more marination)

Blublud

Vizcaino is injured again, so we won’t see him. Lake May get a cup. Bryant sept, 2014 at the earliest, Soler maybe before Bryant, but definitely by Sept. Baez could play his way back into Sept, 2014, and Almora and Vogelbach, 2015.

http://bleachernation.com therealPattyP

Barney leading off should lead to a pink slip for good ole Dale. Barney can then go to Dale’s apartment and they can wax poetic about their bad scrappy basebal beliefs ’til 3 am.

Mysterious4th

Back to back walks from those guys AND Marmol pitched an inning with striking out 2 guys and NO WALKS….seriously the world will end in a few days if they keep it up!

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